1,250,000 signatures for the refounding of Honduras

Martes 14 de Septiembre de 2010 00:13
Adrienne Pine

Mon, 09/13/2010 - 16:50 — AP

National Resistance Front exceeds goal of one million 250 thousand signatures

Tegucigalpa September 12, 2010. The National People's Resistance Front FNRP today exceeded its goal of one million 250 thousand signatures on the Sovereign Declaration for the Popular and Participatory Constituent Assembly, and for the return of Presidente Manuel Zelaya Rosales, Father Andrés Tamayo and the rest of those Hondurans who have been expatriated and are in political exile.
The Front today, Sunday, reached one million 269 thousand 142 signatures, earlier than the deadline for their collection, this September 15th, the day on which the 189th anniversary of Honduran independence from the kingdom of Spain will be celebrated.

The coordinators of the process of collecting the signatures, Professor Eulogio Chávez and lawyer Rasel Tome, informed the Honduran people that the goal was exceeded in a count carried out in the headquarters of the Union of Workers of Beverage and Related Industries, STIBYS.

The sub-coordinator of the Front, Juan Barahona, celebrated having reached the goal, which he called "a triumph of the resistance on a national level, something that should be celebrated by everyone who worked to achieve this" in neighborhoods, towns and villages throughout the country.

Similarly, Rasel Tomé, one of the coordinators of the process of collection, stated that the fact that the Front exceeded the goal is a reflection of the will at a national level, to fight for a more just and equitable society.

It is a triumph that brings us closer to the National Constituent Assembly, said Barahona on the Resistance program directed by journalist Felix Antonio Molina.

Barahona stated that having exceeded the goal represents a commitment to social change in the country, because the collection of signatures was carried out despite repression and the campaign against the collection of signatures on the part of the media.

Barahona announced that the signatures will not be delivered to the executive nor to the legislature, nor to any state institution; the leader affirmed that "we will decide with the people" what to do with the signatures in order to get to the constituyente.

Tome added that each of the signatures is a clear mandate for the safe return of Manuel Zelaya Rosales and the more than 200 other political exiles, and for a new constitution.

On July 19, 2010, the Executive Committee of the FNRP, in its first work meeting, determined that the 56 delegates of the 18 departments of the country and social organizations that make up the Coordinating Committee should concentrate their actions on the collection of signatures of the sovereign declarations for a Constituent Assembly.

On April 20, 2010, at 297 days of resistance, at a march that took place at the exit for the southern region of Honduras, thousands of members of the FNRP began to collect the first signatures, right in the middle of the street.

What is the sovereign declaration?

Each citizen, male and female, declare and signs their demand that "we call upon ourselves to convene a National Constituent Assembly," to be made up of a "popular majority" to write up and approve a "new constitution" that "guarantees" the fundamental individual and collective rights "in an effective and democratic manner."

With this, the Resistance Front moves ahead in its political project and toward September 15, for which a national-level mobilization has been called. Numerous different public institutions have confirmed their participation, having refused to participate in the events of the de facto government presided over by Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

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